Anyone have a Kindle?

exer_cited

Cathlete
Looking for pros, cons, is it worth the $$?!?!?

I see there is a big one and little one..any recommendations?

TIA!!
 
I have the original Kindle. I got it for my birthday just about a year ago. I beleive it has come down in price significantly. I love it and would highly recommend it. Not only is the newer one priced better, I think they've tweaked some of the features just a bit to make it more user friendly. I love the wireless anywhere download of books and newspapers. You literally can shop in the Kindle store and get a new book in 60 seonds. I think it's great especially at the new price. Go for it! Jenn:)
 
My DH has the first generation Kindle and, when the second gen came out, he got me one! I absolutely love it! It's so much easier to carry around when I might have some time to wait and want to read. So many of the books I read are tomes! Plus, no bookmarks to fall out - you never lose your page. The books are much cheaper, you can't lose them and they can't be destroyed as they are stored on the Amazon servers and you can always access them if you lose or break your Kindle. Just replace your Kindle!

The only con for me is that any book I need to read where illustrations are necessary, Kindle doesn't do pictures, but that is a minor issue. I'm talking about instructional books.
 
I don't have the Kindle, but I have a Sony e-reader and I love it. Not sure if they have changed the newer versions of the Kindle, but what I liked better about the e-reader at the time I bought it was that it had a place for SD cards to store your books on. It also supposedly supports more file types than the Kindle.

http://ebookstore.sony.com/reader/
 
I have one and I love, love, love it! I always carry it with me and weather I’m on the train, at the doctor’s office or waiting for a car wash, I always have something to read. Amazon also has a lot of free Kindle books so you might find yourself reading books that you never would have read otherwise. You can read multiple books at the same time. You can also sample or preview books before you make a purchase. Also, there are a lot of options for skins for the Kindle as well as great leather, vinyl, etc. covers to protect your Kindle investment.

I can’t say enough great things about the Kindle, it’s a great gift to receive or give to yourself.

Here's mine with a rose covered skin
 

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I love my Kindle for all the reasons stated previously. My only negative is keeping it charged. Right now my charger is lost somewhere in the vortex of my home. I'm half way through a book (On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet) and book club is in one week.
 
The charge will last forever if you turn the wireless off and only turn it on when you need it to download samples or books! Works for me! I can go weeks without having to charge it!

Just a little hint in case you hadn't thought about that! :D

I love my Kindle for all the reasons stated previously. My only negative is keeping it charged. Right now my charger is lost somewhere in the vortex of my home. I'm half way through a book (On the Corner of Bitter and Sweet) and book club is in one week.
 
Call me old fashioned but I just can't for the life of me give up the feel of paper and the smell of a book in my hands.
 
I don't have a Kindle but I just preordered the new Barnes & Noble one, Nook. It looks like a better deal than Kindle and is the same price.
 
I love my 2nd generation Kindle. There are newer, sexier e-readers coming out now, but I'm addicted to Amazon with its large selection of books, ease of use and low prices.

I haven't seen the 3rd generation Kindle in person, so I can't comment on it other than to say I like the size of mine, and I don't think I would want it to be any bigger. I think the 3d generation is more geared towards textbooks.
 
I won't buy a e-book reader until the day comes that one doesn't have to buy through one vendor (i.e. Amazon). Quite frankly, such a business model is doomed anyway.

Also, I don't want a portable device that serves one purpose only. I want an affordable device I can read my books on, jam out to tunes, received pdf files, etc. The iPHONE has many of these capabilities as I understand it although they do leave much to be desired. Not to mention, the iPHONE is rather pricey and offers sucky service in the metro New York area where I can often be found causing trouble or shopping. I'll holdout. In the meantime, I am happy to read my books and donate whatever I don't want to keep to troops overseas or to my library's bi-annual booksale.
 
I'm too much of a bibliophile to go techno with books. And what would I do with all that space my books take up? I'd have to buy new furniture for every room in the house!!:D
 
Oh, Melissa, Beav's post reminded me of something I found interesting: A while back someone did a poll on the Amazon Kindle forum boards and it appears that the average age of Kindle user is about 50. Apparently, the Kindle is frequently purchased by people with arthritis who have trouble turning pages, and by people who need larger type in order to read. True story. Also, we discovered that younger people don't like the Kindle because it has only one purpose, and young people prefer gadgets that are multi-functional and have a lot more bells and whistles. Even the most techno-averse geezer can operate a Kindle, at least once the book is downloaded. My 17-year old niece looks at my Kindle and just shakes her head in pity. Too funny! :D

ETA: There are some really cool gadgets coming out for the holidays that you may want to take a look at. I saw some kind of new phone that's also an e-reader. Frankly, if I didn't already own a Kindle and if I needed a phone, I would do a wait-and-see-what's-next thing.
 
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I've been looking at the Kindle for quite some time...and I would like to try it first hand and see if my mom and grandma like it as they love to read and being able to change font size would be wonderful. But I wanted to say thanks for Janet for the heads up about the new B&N product...looks great! and I love the name...say it fast...nook e-book :D
julie
 
Just wanted to add my two cents. :) I commute via the train..have a kindle, and am obsessed! I recently complained loudly to my husband because we both wanted to read the new Dan Brown book so i had to read like all the normal people, LOL. I told him if i got carpal tunnel from turning pages it was his fault. :)

That said, there are a few things that bug me. One..as inferred above..you can't share books. I'm not even sure if you could send the file over the internet to another person who has a kindle...though it does have a usb that connects to your computer, so that may be possible but i don't know anyone who has one yet.

Also, for any kind of book that you would be referencing a glossary or index frequently, the kindle is not good for that. It's very annoying having to use the links system within the book to jump back and forth. So really it's not good for instructional books atm.

Other than that i find it a wonderful addition to my technological world. I read a TON, even when i'm not commuting on the train, and i've read books i never even thought of before because of the online store that is so easy to search. Plus i just found out they have some old classics available for free and am currently reading "Little Women."

Anyways, i'm obviously very for the kindle, and if you have the spare cash, go get one! They've been around for a couple years now, and since several other companies are hopping on the bandwagon, i'd say it's fairly successful, otherwise you wouldn't see others willing to invest in the technology.

Kay
 
The Nook also plays MP3 files (songs), holds PDF files, audiobooks....lots of things...it's not just an e-reader. I also like the fact that I'll be able to loan someone else a book I've downloaded 14 days....either to another nook or an iphone, ipod, PC or Mac. Anyone who is considering it should definitely go to the B&N site and check it out.

I'm one of those people that really likes the feel of books in my hand so I'm not sure how I'll like the Nook....but I have 14 days after I receive it to return it if I want so I figured what have I got to lose? Living in a one bedroom apartment, I just don't have the space for all the books I want, that's my main reason for trying an e-reader. If I had a house I probably wouldn't be interested in it, but I only have so much shelf space in my 686 sq. ft. apartment!!
 
Oh, Melissa, Beav's post reminded me of something I found interesting: A while back someone did a poll on the Amazon Kindle forum boards and it appears that the average age of Kindle user is about 50. Apparently, the Kindle is frequently purchased by people with arthritis who have trouble turning pages, and by people who need larger type in order to read. True story. Also, we discovered that younger people don't like the Kindle because it has only one purpose, and young people prefer gadgets that are multi-functional and have a lot more bells and whistles. Even the most techno-averse geezer can operate a Kindle, at least once the book is downloaded. My 17-year old niece looks at my Kindle and just shakes her head in pity. Too funny! :D

ETA: There are some really cool gadgets coming out for the holidays that you may want to take a look at. I saw some kind of new phone that's also an e-reader. Frankly, if I didn't already own a Kindle and if I needed a phone, I would do a wait-and-see-what's-next thing.

Thanks Nancy. Your post and Beavs' definetly gave me alot to think about. I think your right, holding off until the holidays to see what is coming out is probably a good idea.

That, and I can never think of anything to put on my Christmas list for DH...;)
 
I love, love my library card. Love physical books. I also love my Sony e-reader. I go back and forth between physical books and my e-reader.

When I did my research I chose the Sony for a few reasons, including multiple supported formats. I can use the digital libraries and 'check out' books, load other pdf documents, separate into 'collections' and use the google free books. Plus I like the quality and support of Sony products.
 

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